Facebook

I created a special Facebook membership as Lizzy Reader and friended North Shore Libraries. Facebook is an easy way of keeping in touch, and even finding, family and friends who have moved around the globe, or even just to another town.

I am not a huge fan of MySpace. I object to having someone elses taste in music assault my ears when I open a webpage. I cancelled my membership there after a brief visit.

Library news from abroad: Copac has added Cheltenham's library catalogue. Chetham's Library is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world.

eBooks

eBooks are the real revolution that will impact on libraries more than any other technology. As the products of this technology become more portable and easier to operate, such as the kindle, and even the iPhone is now a book reader, most books will be replaced by these devices.

Convenience, affordability (downloads are cheaper) and the fact that one can carry umpteen books on a small portable device offering one an amazing selection of reads for any occasion. People who say that there is nothing that can replace the tactile quality of a book, or that magical new book smell, will lose out to the younger generation as they become our tax paying patrons. A plus is the saving in space, no bookshelves required, and time saving, no dusting necessary - just gently wipe that little device and your 'books' are dust free... bonus for all asthma sufferers.

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius is freely available at Project Gutenberg.

More on the iPhone as book reader.

Podcasts.

I subscribe to a number of podcasts through my iTunes as it is so convenient. However I subscribed to Groks Science Radio Show and Podcast with Bloglines as instructed. It is another wonderful technology that gets the information that interests people to them in a format that almost everyone can enjoy, even non-readers.

Interested in science?

Vegetarian's Nightmare

What's not to like about YouTube? Did you miss the US presidential debate? Go to YouTube. You like Arrogant Worms... I'll bet they're up on YouTube, persecuting vegetarians.



While there are a lot of egomaniacs posting boring tripe, YouTube provides some excellent tutorials on various subjects, as well as online lectures broken up into easily downloadable sized chunks. I vote it to be both educational and highly entertaining.

Member of the Blog Press

I used a generator to become an Official Press Person. This should get me interviews!

The latest update of the Oxford DNB is online, with a special focus on First World War lives.

Web 2.0 Awards

There are a number of Web 2.0 Awards sites in this list that I actually frequent. I love...

• Digg because it's fun and brings interesting sites/news to my attention that I might not otherwise have read about, such as Toxel.com an interesting design site.
• Twitter, too (in a round about way), provides me with great links to various sites and information.
• I have bought a book from Lulu.
• and who has not used Google maps at some point.
• I have a Last FM page, and it's linked to my Facebook.
  

I will be interested to see which sites make next years list.

In other news: NationMaster is a useful site that incorporates data from CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD, and makes it possible to graphically compare nations. Worth exploring.

Completing Wiki Exploration...

I explored NSL Learning 2.0 Wiki Sandbox very thoroughly, and posted comments and a link to my site at Favourite Blogs.

ReadWriteWeb reports that Microsoft has launched its Live Search Cashback rebate program. Basically this means that if you search for an item on live.com and then buy it from a participating store you receive a certain amount of money back. Still no threat to Google.

I was also very interested to see an advert for a Web 3.0 conference. We'll be doing web 3.0 blogs next. It never stops!

Wikis

I love the concept of wikis, the idea of making use of the knowledge and expertise 'out there', although I do acknowledge the drawbacks, i.e. of the lack of control over content publication and the potential for abuse by spammers and others of similar ilk. Still, wikis such as Library Success: A best practises wiki illustrate the usefulness of this format. I also feel that the more specialised the wiki, the less likely it will be of interest to trolls and spammers.

Free online access to the award winning Sage Journals Online till 31 October 2008.

Library 2.0

Being of a naturally curious disposition I am in love with Web 2.0 and all that it offers. These exercises we are doing are a wonderful excuse to spend even more time on my computer. I can say to my family - "It's work!"

I'm constantly amazed at the imagination and creativeness of the people coming up with vital web applications that I didn't know I needed until I discovered them. Firefox now has so many add-ons that really can simplify one's browsing experience, as well as add to the enjoyment.

As Rick Anderson said in his blog, and I must say that I agree with him, that I believe our patrons will expect, and have the right to expect, access to all 'emerging' technologies, digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts, etc.. They are never 'emerging' for very long, but quickly become part of our patron's daily lives, especially the curious and the young.

Random thought: I would just like to make a suggestion to whoever designs library catalogues. Please add that famous Google 'did you mean' feature...

..to all library catalogues. You will be loved forever!

Smileys don't publish from Zoho...

That outlined 'laughing' was a cute smiley... darn!!

Exploring Zoho...

This is my Zoho Writer exercise...   As you can see I'm starting out with an optimistic smile, and I'm going to attempt to export this page to my blog.  Let's hope the smile doesn't slip. 

I'm including a link to an interesting bit of news, I think, to test the web link insert 'thingy'... British Library acquires Dering Roll

LibraryThing and Rollyo

Interesting and fun. My LibraryThing page link. I added titles and checked the recommendations to see what was added as my list grew. Interesting and not a bad selection. When I clicked gallery I got pictures of a number the authors I'd read, and I hadn't known what quite a few of them looked like... so now I do. And then I hit a snag. The site suddenly could not find a single book I entered. I got "No results found for "Slaughterhouse-Five", etc. for every book I entered?! Hmmm. The end of that for now. I'll have to try again later.

My Rollyo Seachroll. I only added 4 sites, so it is rather limited, but I get the idea. I found the Rollyo site's instructions clear and easy to follow. An interesting exercise.

"Can you see a potential for tools like this?" Possibly, but I find that a good old Google search suffices for my purposes. Obviously including good quality personally selected sites for specific searches could be very useful for frequently asked questions.

Today's link: authonomy, a site for writers, readers and publishers. The authonomy blog.